Android 4.4 code reveals updated apps, OIS for the camera, more

If you’ve been keeping watch, you know that the crew at Myce.com have the Android 4.4 files in-hand, and are working hard to extract some hints and features we may see. This time around, it sounds like we’ll get USB OTG functionality, as well as updated Google apps. There is also evidence that the way things are updated may see a slight twist, with Google changing a bit of the code language.

First, we have the updated app log from Android.it, an italian site helping Myce with their sleuthing. To start, the full change log for Google apps:

Email : 4.1 - 6.0

Google Search Sound : 1.1.8 - 1.1.11

Watch : 2.0.3 - 3.0.0

Currents : 2.1.1 - 2.1.2

Cloud Print : 0.6.1b - 0.8.3

Hangouts : 1.2.018 - 1.3.012

Google Authenticator : 2:49 to 3:55

Play Books : 2.9.21 (varies by device) - 3.0.1

Gallery : 1.1.40012 - 1.1.40030

QuickOffice : 6.1.180 - 6.2.255

Play Store : 4.3.11 - 4.4.2

Gmail : 4.6 - 4.6.1

While some are slight updates -- like Google Search Sound moving from 1.1.8 to 1.1.11, some are significant. Email sees a jump from 4.1 to 6.0, and Hangouts gets a bump as well. Quickoffice will see an improvement, as well as Play Store. That’s not a guarantee that all these are significant, considering KitKat is technically an incremental upgrade in regard to version numbering, but it’s still interesting.

As for the USB OTG functionality, that comes from a few lines of code, which you can see below. The mention of USB acknowledgement of things plugged in as actionable is interesting, but not very detailed or robust. We’ll just have to wait and see if this leads to anything, like the ability to use outside storage. Given that the Nexus 5 is said to have a slim 16GB of storage, we’d like to think so.

As for the camera, there is mention of OIS in the software, so we’re leaning toward the camera actually having optical image stabilization. If the Nexus 5 is indeed based on the LG G2, that’s not a surprise. The G2 has OIS, and it’s unlikely Google or LG would change the camera out.

In regard to updating apps, Google may have tweaked it a bit. Whereas some apps were once simply named com.android.(whatever), there is now a "google" stuck in there. Becoming com.google.android.(whatever) could mean that they'll be updating their apps -- which they've begun breaking out from Android -- with Play Services.